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On May 23-24, following the Days of the International Academy of Education held earlier this week, the General Assembly of the International Academy of Education took place at HSE University Moscow. The assembly brings together education researchers and experts from all over the world, and this is the first time that the biannual meeting was held in Russia. Over the course of two days, members discussed joint projects and publications and met newly inducted members who had the opportunity to introduce themselves and present their research. Members also took part in small group discussions on a variety of topics, including digital literacy and math education.

The results of recent study conducted by the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, the agency’s automatic interplanetary station, show the existence of a ‘permafrost’ near the poles of the Moon with a relatively high content of water ice (up to 5% by weight). It is believed that water ice could supply a life support system for the future Russian Lunar Station and that it could also produce hydrogen-oxygen fuel for flights into deep space.

The HSE Centre for Studies of Income and Living Standards studied the dynamics of the middle class and its behaviour with regard to paid services. The study was based on data drawn from the HSE Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS-HSE) for the years 2000 to 2017, and the results were presented at the 20th April International Academic Conference hosted by HSE.

Article

Trade Costs, Regional Inequality, and the Home Market Effect

We develop an economic geography framework with positive trade costs in both manufacturing and traditional sectors, mobile skilled workers, and unequal shares of unskilled labour in regions. We show that partial agglomeration always features the home market effect (HME) regardless of whether regions trade only the manufacturing good or both. Moreover, spatial factor mobility is significant for the HME to arise while intersectoral mobility does not play a crucial role. Furthermore, a decrease in the traditional sector trade costs makes the HME weaker, and increases the likelihood of full agglomeration in the larger region. Finally, we show that a small departure from Cobb-Douglas upper-tier utility towards gross substitutability of manufacturing and traditional goods reinforces the HME while the opposite holds for gross complementarity of goods.

We develop a simple partial-equilibrium model of endogenous city structure formation. No
production externalities are at work, the only two forces shaping the spatial configurations of
the city being love for variety (on the consumer side) and seeking for a better access to the market
(on the firm side). We show that, unlike in existing models of a similar nature, our model
generates clustering rather than co-agglomeration. Namely, if there are few firms relative to
the urban population size, then firms tend to cluster at the city center, while consumers choose
to reside on the outskirts. Otherwise, the opposite holds. Although a continuum of equilibrium
city structures may emerge, we show that all spatial equilibria are segregated. In addition, the
market outcome features spatial price dispersion, even though our framework does not involve
imperfect information and search costs on the consumer side.

We propose a general equilibrium model to study the spatial inequality of consumers and firms within a city. Our mechanics rely on Dixit and Stiglitz monopolistic competition framework. The firms and consumers are continuously distributed across a two-dimensional space, there are iceberg-type costs both for goods shipping and workers commuting (hence firms have variable marginal costs based on their location). Our main interest is in the equilibrium spatial distribution of wealth. We construct a model that is both tractable and general enough to stand the test of real city empirics. We provide some theoretical statements, but mostly the results of numerical simulations with the real Moscow data.

We develop a product-differentiated model where the product space is a network defined as a set of varieties (nodes) linked by their degrees of substitutabilities (edges). In this network, we also locate consumers so that the location of each consumer (node) corresponds to her "ideal" variety. We show that there exists a unique Nash equilibrium in the price game among firms. Equilibrium prices are determined by firms' weighted Bonacich centralities and the average willingness to pay across consumers. They both hinge on the network structure of the firm-product space. We also investigate how local product differentiation and the spatial discount factor affect the equilibrium prices. We show that these effects non-trivially depend on the network structure. In particular, we find that, in a star-shaped network, the firm located in the star node does not always enjoy higher monopoly power than the peripheral firms.

The purpose of paper is to investigate how the interplay of trade, commuting and communication costs shapes economy at both inter-regional and intra-urban level. Specifically, we study how trade affects the internal structure of cities and how decentralizing the production and consumption of goods in secondary employment centers allows firms located in a large city to maintain their predominance. The feature of approach is using of two-dimensional city pattern instead of the “long narrow city” model.

We study Krugman's core–periphery (CP) model for most general cases of nonidentical regions and fully characterize instant and long-run equilibria. Assuming immobility of labor, we describe the behavior of equilibrium wages/real wages. Moreover, the relative wages/real wages of industrial workers can both increase and decrease with the population with which they are associated. Under the assumption of industrial labor mobility, possible patterns of economic evolution, as responses to trade freeness, are fully described. We show that in the case of noticeable agricultural asymmetry, all mobile labor inevitably accumulates in countries with larger agricultural populations.

Sidorov A. In bk.: Contributions to game theory and management. Vol. VII: Collected papers presented onSeventh International Conference Game Theory and Management. St. Petersburg: Graduate School of Management, St. Petersburg University, 2014. P. 360-383.

The purpose of paper is to investigate how the interplay of trade, commuting and communication costs shapes economy at both inter-regional and intra-urban level. Specifically, we study how trade affects the internal structure of cities and how decentralizing the production and consumption of goods in secondary employment centers allows firms located in a large city to maintain their predominance. The feature of approach is using of two-dimensional city pattern instead of the "long narrow city'' model.

is obtained in terms of the basic parameters of model. In particular, condition of uniqueness of the stable total agglomerated equilibrium were obtained. The main feature of this paper is that the considered model is asymmetric, i.e., uneven allocation of the immobile (agricultural) population across regions is allowed. Unlike the previously known results for asymmetric CP model, which were based on numerical simulations, this research is quite analytical.

The paper examines the institute of minimum wage in developed and transition economies and in a number of the developing countries. First of all the institutional mechanism of minimum wage fixing is considered. One of the sections explores the dynamics of absolute and relative levels of minimum wage. The special attention is paid to the impact of the institute of minimum wage on the labour market. The author considers the mechanism of transmission of the minimum wage increases on the employment and unemployment dynamics. The paper also contains the result of the empirical research. The experience of many countries witnesses that large increases in minimum wage levels lead to the stagnation of the employ-ment, especially of the disadvantaged groups. The negative effect is larger for the companies with higher share of labour costs and more active use of unqualified labour, that is small businesses and agricultural enterprises. One of the main conclusions is that the minimum wage is not an effective tool of the poverty reduction as the majority of the recipients live in households of average and upper average income.

Smoking is a problem, bringing signifi cant social and economic costs to Russiansociety. However, ratifi cation of the World health organization Framework conventionon tobacco control makes it possible to improve Russian legislation accordingto the international standards. So, I describe some measures that should be taken bythe Russian authorities in the nearest future, and I examine their effi ciency. By studyingthe international evidence I analyze the impact of the smoke-free areas, advertisementand sponsorship bans, tax increases, etc. on the prevalence of smoking, cigaretteconsumption and some other indicators. I also investigate the obstacles confrontingthe Russian authorities when they introduce new policy measures and the public attitudetowards these measures. I conclude that there is a number of easy-to-implementanti-smoking activities that need no fi nancial resources but only a political will.

One of the most important indicators of company's success is the increase of its value. The article investigates traditional methods of company's value assessment and the evidence that the application of these methods is incorrect in the new stage of economy. So it is necessary to create a new method of valuation based on the new main sources of company's success that is its intellectual capital.